322 



TEA DISTRICTS OF CHINA. 



Chap. XIX. 



quite unknown in Canton. This may seem strange 

 in a country where the people are proverbially fond 

 of flowers, but the Chinese are so machine-like in all 

 their movements, that after a little acquaintance with 

 them we cease to wonder at the apparent anomaly. 

 The fact is, the Canton gardens are supplied with 

 moutans by another district, which lies much further 

 to the west than Shanghae. From time immemorial 

 the same gardens have supplied these flowers ; they 

 came always by the same road and at the same time 

 of the year. Shanghae, until the close of the last 

 war, never seems to have had any connection with 

 Canton in so far as flowers were concerned, con- 

 sequently these fine varieties of the tree-pseony never 

 found their way to the south and from thence to 

 Europe. 



The moutan gardens are numerous, but each is 

 upon a very small scale. They look more like cot- 

 tage gardens than anything else, and are managed in 

 the same way as gardens of this description generally 

 are, namely, by the members of the family. The 

 female part of the community seem to take as much 

 interest in the business as the males, and are very 

 avaricious and fond of money. I invariably found 

 that I had to pay a higher price for a plant when 

 they were consulted on the matter. The soil of 

 these gardens is a rich loam, well manured, and thus 

 rendered lighter in texture than that of the surround- 

 ing country in which the cotton grows. 



The propagation and management of the moutan 

 seem to be much better understood at Shanghae than 



